2017 Volume 2017 Issue 55 Pages 157-177
In this paper, I study the self-recognition and experience of “non-qualified” teachers after Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia to analyze elementary school teachers’ life histories in the one of the major provincial capitals. In the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, after Pol Pot’s regime, the new Heng Samlin government faced a difficult situation. The government had to reconstruct a new nation state as a socialist state under the intervention of Vietnamese armies and negative legacies of Pol Pot’s regime. In terms of education reconstruction, education policy was based on mass education; therefore, the problem of a lack of teachers was serious. To tackle this problem, many teachers were appointed with only short-term or no training. These teachers are called “non-qualified” teachers in this paper.
Today, Cambodian teachers are labeled as “low quality teachers”, as they are perceived to be less educated teachers like “non-qualified” teachers. In many cases, focus was placed on teachers’ educational backgrounds, and teachers were categorized for the target of educational development. Along with teachers’ narratives, I attempt to analyze the following three questions: (1) Which teachers are recognized as being “non-qualified” teachers?; (2) What sort of educational background does each “non-qualified” teacher have?, and (3) What are other common experiences among “non-qualified” teachers? From these three questions, I characterize the self-recognition of being a “non-qualified” teacher and other common experiences.
First, how are teachers recognized as being “non-qualified” teachers? One teacher said, “Before 1985, when the allocation of new formal teachers started, all teachers were “non-qualified” teachers, including me.” Another teacher said, “Teachers who had a high educational background were also deemed ‘non-qualified’ teachers, because they did not have a formal teacher’s certificate.” The teacher, who already had a teacher’s certification before Pol Pot’s regime, told me that he had also attended the same short-term teacher training alongside less educated, “non-qualified” teachers in the People’s Republic of the Kampuchea era. From teachers’ self-recognition and common identification awareness, “non-qualified” teachers include all the teachers who were appointed in the beginning of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea . Age and educational background were not important for the classification.
Second, based on teachers’ life histories, in Table 3 I profile 17 “non-qualified” teachers and two teachers who had experienced formal teacher training courses in the People’s Republic of the Kampuchea era. Table 3 provides basic information as of 1979 (birth year, sex and occupation), educational backgrounds, final educational qualifications, years and periods of short-term teacher training, year formal teacher certificates were obtained, and working periods in elementary schools. The data in Table 3 reveals three important points. Firstly, at the beginning of the People’s Republic of the Kampuchea era, teachers with high educational backgrounds worked together in elementary schools as “non-qualified” teachers. Secondly, in 1979 there was no obvious relationship between educational backgrounds and the period of short-term teacher training. Finally, low educational background “non-qualified” teachers could continue to gain more educational experience and advance their careers. Such actual images of “non-qualified” teachers from this discussion is different from teachers’ images labeled as “low quality.”
Third, what is the common background among “non-qualified” teachers, excepting educational background? Here I focus on three topics: teachers’ motivation, teaching style and content, and secondary employment. Concerning teachers’ motivation, many teachers decided to start working as a teacher, psychologically (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
